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From: Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13

Kings and princes condemned

[4] They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
[5] l have spurned your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will it be
till they are pure [6] in Israel?

A workman made it;
it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
shall be broken to pieces.
[7] For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads,
it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
aliens would devour it.

Israel ruined by relying on foreign help

[11]Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
[12] Were I to write for him my laws by ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
[13] They love sacrifice;
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
but the Lord has no delight in them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
and punish their sins;
they shall return to Egypt.

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Commentary:

8:1-14. This passage begins and ends with imperatives (v. 1; cf. 9:1). The first
stanza (vv. 1-7) gives God’s order to Hosea to be his herald (to blow the trumpet
or horn), to warn against impending danger: a vulture is hovering over “the house
of the Lord”, probably a reference to the shrine at Bethel (v. 1). The people re-
spond (”My God”: v. 2) and back their cry for help by saying that he should hear
them because they acknowledge him as their God: “we Israel know thee.”

But the Lord, through the prophet, says that that is not so: Israel does not know
him, for it has “spurned the good” (v. 3). The prophet denounces two sins here:
they have acted without reference to God, by appointing kings “but not through
me” (v. 4); and they have made idols of silver and gold (the golden calf of Sa-
maria gets special mention: vv. 4-5). These are grievous sins; therefore, having
sown the wind, “they shall reap the whirlwind”, to quote the proverb, and a short
wisdom maxim tells them what punishment awaits them (vv. 6-7).

The punishment announced in v. 7 (being “devoured by aliens”) has already be-
fallen Israel in the first verse of the second stanza (vv. 8-14), which denounces
foreign pacts (vv. 9-10) and the idolatry that Israel falls into as a consequence
of them (vv. 11-13). The prophet begins by saying that the alliances that Israel
tries to make with foreign powers, involving probably tribute to the king of As-
syria (vv. 8-10), will be to no avail. What these three verses seem to be saying
is that Israel now tries to make alliances that are at odds with its true nature:
inevitably, they will take its freedom away. The oracle goes on to denounce
the effects that these pacts will have on worship of the Lord: there will be an in-
creased number of places of worship but, because Canaanite rites will be mixed
in with Yahwist ones, the religious services, far from expiating sins, will multiply
them (v. 11). Moreover, even the offerings that they do make to the Lord will not
be pleasing to him, for they will not he backed up by fulfilment of the Law of the
Lord (vv. 12-13). The same point is being made as in 6:6: “Outward sacrifice, to
be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: ‘The sacrifice accepta-
ble to God is a broken spirit ...’ (Ps 51:19). The prophets of the Old Covenant of-
ten denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of
neighbour” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2100). So, the prophet sees that
Israel needs to be cleansed; hence the threat that “they shall return to Egypt”,
that is, become enslaved once again.

The last verse re-introduces the idea of “forgetting God”. By building palaces and
fortresses, Israel is showing that he “has forgotten his Maker”, that is, does not
put his trust in him: if Assyria “devours” part of the nation’s land (vv. 8-9), the fire
of God will “devour” the strongholds, on which it had relied (v. 14). “Forgetting
God” is a favourite theme of Hosea’s (cf. 2:13; 4:6), but the threat of destruction
by fire is repeated a number of times in Amos (cf. Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12; 2:5).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Matthew 9:32-38

The Dumb Devil

[32] As they were going away, behold, a dumb demoniac was brought to him [Je-
sus]. [33] And when the demon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke; and the
crowds marvelled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” [34] But
the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

The Need for Good Shepherds

[35] And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues
and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every
infirmity. [36] When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because
they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37] Then He
said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; [38] pray
therefore the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

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Commentary:

35. The Second Vatican Council uses this passage when teaching about the
message of Christian charity which the Church should always be spreading:
“Christian charity is extended to all without distinction of race, social condition
or religion, and seeks neither gain nor gratitude. Just as God loves us with a gra-
tuitous love, so too the faithful, in their charity, should be concerned for mankind,
loving it with that same love with which God sought man. As Christ went about
all the towns and villages healing every sickness and infirmity, as a sign that the
Kingdom of God had come, so the Church, through its children, joins itself with
men of every condition, but especially with the poor and afflicted, and willingly
spends herself for them” (”Ad Gentes”, 12).

36. “He had compassion for them”: the Greek verb is very expressive; it means
“He was deeply moved”. Jesus was moved when He saw the people, because
their pastors, instead of guiding them and tending them, led them astray, beha-
ving more like wolves than genuine shepherds of their flock. Jesus sees the pro-
phecy of Ezekiel 34 as now being fulfilled; in that passage God, through the pro-
phet, upbraids the false shepherds of Israel and promises to send them the Mes-
siah to be their new leader.

“If we were consistent with our faith when we looked around us and contemplated
the world and its history, we would be unable to avoid feeling in our own hearts
the same sentiments that filled the heart of our Lord” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is
Passing By”, 133). Reflection on the spiritual needs of the world should lead us
to be tirelessly apostolic.

37-38. After contemplating the crowds neglected by their shepherds, Jesus uses
the image of the harvest to show us that that same crowd is ready to receive the
effects of Redemption: “I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see now the fields are al-
ready white for harvest” (John 4:35). The field of the Jewish people cultivated by
the prophets—most recently by John the Baptist—is full of ripe wheat. In farm work,
the harvest is lost if the farmer does not reap at the right time; down the centuries
the Church feels a similar need to be out harvesting because there is a big har-
vest ready to be won.

However, as in the time of Jesus, there is a shortage of laborers. Our Lord tells
us how to deal with this: we should pray to God, the Lord of harvest, to send the
necessary laborers. If a Christian prays hard, it is difficult to imagine his not fee-
ling urged to play his part in this apostolate. In obeying this commandment to
pray for laborers, we should pray especially for there to be no lack of shepherds,
who will be able to equip others with the necessary means of sanctification nee-
ded to back up the apostolate.

In this connection Paul VI reminds us: “the responsibility for spreading the Gos-
pel that saves belongs to everyone—to all who have received it! The missionary
duty concerns the whole body of the Church; in different ways and to different de-
grees, it is true, but we must all of us be united in carrying out this duty. Now let
the conscience of every believer ask himself: Have I carried out my missionary
duty? Prayer for the Missions is the first way of fulfilling this duty” (”Angelus Ad-
dress”, 23 October 1977).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.